Seattle's Pulitzer-winning cartoonist David Horsey's latest cartoons and commentary on politics and current events

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..

McCain goes to Buffalo Chip

The thing I like about John McCain is that, unlike the rest of America’s top politicians, he’s willing to say things that make people gasp.

My friend, Toni Woodruff, is sort of a junior partner in her dad’s business, The Legendary Buffalo Chip Campground outside of Sturgis, South Dakota. She was in the pit in front of the Buffalo Chip stage on Tuesday where McCain was speaking to a throng of Harley riders who had come to town for the annual Black Hills biker rally. When McCain told the crowd he thought it would be great if his wife Cindy could be both First Lady and Miss Buffalo Chip, Toni thought to herself, “My God, I can’t believe he actually said it!”

The Miss Buffalo Chip contest in 2006 — no nudity, just bikinis.

Miss Buffalo Chip is a title for which strippers once competed by shedding all their clothes. These days, it’s a more respectable bikini contest. Still, McCain’s comment is the kind of edgy humor that most candidates avoid in these days of gaffes and gotcha. I have to admire a guy running for president who is brave enough — or crazy enough — to not censor himself 24 hours a day.

In the column I mention that I’ve gone to Sturgis a few times. After my first visit in 2002, I wrote a piece for the P-I’s Sunday Focus section that argued the world of the bikers is closer to America’s cultural center than most people think:

Here’s a scary thought for those of you who believe a glass of chardonnay, the latest copy of the Atlantic Monthly and a little Vivaldi on the stereo are the makings of a fine evening: Not only in politics, but also in cultural values, bikers are closer to the U.S. mainstream than you are. In a pop-culture nation where blockbuster movies, prime-time television and teen music are permeated with barnyard sex and bathroom humor, who can say the straight-out raunchiness of Sturgis is countercultural?

I now feel as if my take on the Sturgis scene has been validated by McCain’s visit. To read the entire piece and see the color cartoon that went with it, go here.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..